The Nationalist Party on Friday accused the Labour Party of registering nearly 100 voters as residents at a housing complex in Siġġiewi which is still in shell form. The residents who were registered do not live in this government estate, the PN said.

Addressing a press conference outside the Valletta law courts on Friday, Nationalist Party secretary general Michael Piccinino said this is the perfect example of how government uses housing and other resources to manipulate local council elections.

The party filed 99 court applications to request the reversal of registrations for the voters in question.

In 2019, Labour had won Siġġiewi for the first time since local elections started being held with a mere 70-vote advantage.

“We have caught labour gerrymandering in Siġġiewi,” Piccinino said, explaining that as of last month, nobody had been registered as living at the housing project in question. “The moment the President signed off on the election, suddenly 99 people were registered as living there.”

PN representatives visited the apartment block on Thursday, finding it to be still under construction, empty and unfinished. Most of the units had no front door and no electricity or water services were connected, Piccinino added.

Two thirds of the individuals registered as residing at the site were from Qormi, which is the district contested by housing minister Roderick Galdes.

He stressed that the PN’s request was not for voters to be struck off the electoral register altogether, but that they be returned to their district. “Abuse is not acceptable,” he said.

In reply, the Labour Party said that the PN is again trying to cast doubts by using the same tactics employed in the past, such as when then leader Simon Busuttil had said that the voting document ink was not appropriate.

The PL admitted that the residents' names have been added to the Siggiewi local council list, saying that the PN expected people who qualified for social housing not to start the process leading to their new home.

The PL said the PN was against the project, but today's action shows the level of prejudice that the PN had in thinking that whoever qualified for social housing cannot be a PN voter.

The PL added that the PN was against the project because it is a classist party.

In a counter reply, the PN said that the PL had not denied it was committing an electoral fraud.

The PN is in favour of social housing but against whoever commits electoral fraud. It is shameful that the PL is trying to take advantage of people who apply for social housing to commit electoral fraud.